3D printing is taking over at a mammoth speed all over the world. From houses to steaks, everything is being 3D printed. The seven houses shown here are testimony of the wonders that can be achieved with 3D printers.
We had previously seen a street full of houses built by using 3D printers in Texas. Now, a whole neighbourhood made out of 3D printers has emerged in Nacajuca, Mexico. The houses were built for low-income families as per Design taxi.
The homes are pretty livable and also presentable. Having said that, it cannot be overlooked that these houses are sturdy and resilient. For example, the Mexican city of Nacajuca was hit by an earthquake of 7.4 magnitude after constructing these houses, and nothing happened to them, not even a scratch.
Three firms collaborated to make these houses a reality: New Story, a San Francisco-based not-for-profit “pioneering solutions to end global homelessness”; Échale, a social housing production company from Mexico; and Icon, a Texas-based construction technologies company “dedicated to revolutionizing homebuilding and making dignified housing the standard for people throughout the world.” The homes are one story high with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom.
The Vulcan II, a 3D printer used to create houses, was used to achieve this feat. Achieving this feat has nonetheless been a tough ask. The team had to carry on with the project under the constraints that are common in rural locations.
Power availability and weather have been the major hurdles in the project. “This printer, designed to tackle housing shortages for vulnerable populations, is the first of its kind,” wrote New Story in a press release.
Francesco Piazzesi, Échale’s chief executive, said to the New York Times that this futuristic printer used for these constructions is needed in the times to come and that the construction process looked like something out of a RoboCop movie. However, in a nutshell, what truly matters is that it did an outstanding job of constructing steady and sturdy houses where it is needed most.
